Property Management Fee

A property management fee is what you pay a manager or co-host to operate the rental for you. Short-term rentals cost much more to manage than long-term ones, often 20 percent of revenue or higher, versus the 8 to 12 percent common on annual leases, because every booking brings new guest messages, dynamic pricing, and a cleaning turn to coordinate.

That gap matters because the fee comes off the top of revenue, where margins are already thin, and it can cut your cash flow roughly in half on a marginal property. Self-managing avoids the fee but trades it for your own time and on-call availability, so weigh the hours against the cost.